Bobby Rivers TV

Thursday, August 17, 2017

He's currently an Emmy nominee. Hallelujah! He deserves that nomination for his excellent performance as an unappreciated film director in Hollywood. In the TV mini-series, FEUD: BETTE AND JOAN, versatile Alfred Molina played Robert Aldrich. He was man who directed WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? In this TV mini-series, we see that Aldrich really had his hands full on that movie project. He was working with two Oscar-winning veteran movie queens who were no longer young and no longer getting good scripts. If a juicy script did come along, they were on it like a junkyard dog that found some uneaten T-bone steak. Joan Crawford and Bette Davis were two heavy pieces of furniture to deal with, but they realized that they needed this low-budget psychological horror tale of two rival sisters to resuscitate their careers. Aldrich, serious about his craft, was treated badly. Jack L. Warner, head of Warner Brothers, gave Aldrich the WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? duties but bluntly told him that he was not a director of note like John Huston, William Wyler or George Cukor. He was more bargain basement than main floor. A lot of us could relate to the humiliation and determination in Molina's portrayal of Aldrich. The low-budget movie became a huge box office smash and brought Bette Davis an Oscar nomination. Aldrich would go on to make other big hits such as HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE also with Bette Davis, THE DIRTY DOZEN and 1974's THE LONGEST YARD starring Burt Reynolds.

I am so glad Molina got that Emmy nomination as the director who, like the two aging stars, was desperate for a success. He was marvelous and so truthful in FEUD. He did a great job.

I've been an Alfred Molina for years and you probably have been too. But when the heck will Hollywood wake up and give him an Oscar nomination? He's never been nominated. Let me give you a few of his film performances that I feel were Oscar nomination worthy:

PRICK UP YOUR EARS (1987).

Molina is flat-out fabulous as Kenneth Halliwell, the reserved and not-as-handsome half of a gay male couple. Halliwell is treated as beige while his celebrated, handsome partner is the colorful and charismatic celebrity, Joe Orton. PRICK UP YOUR EARS is a true tale. This was a gay relationship in the 1960s when being gay was pretty much illegal. Both lusty Joe Orton, very well played by Gary Oldman, and jealous Kenneth Halliwell dream of becoming writers. Orton, we see, gets popular in public restrooms and as a playwright. Orton's play, ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE, was a sensation. It was made into a 1970 British film. Halliwell was not such a sensation. He almost becomes like a servant to his successful boyfriend. Orton's prolific career was brief -- due to the fact that he was bludgeoned to death. Click here to see a trailer: https://youtu.be/GpYSqJZosEU.

FRIDA (2002).

Salma Hayek got an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in this film directed by Julie Taymor. It's a screen biopic on the life of artist Frida Kahlo. A severe physical injury and a rocky marriage were the pressures that formed her original art and made it stand out like a diamond. Alfred Molina stands out as Frida's husband, Diego Rivera, also a larger-than-life artist.

AN EDUCATION (2009).

Another film directed by a woman, Lone Scherfig, and another film in which a woman director guided her lead performer to a Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Carey Mulligan is radiant in this coming-of-age story about a teen girl in suburban London. Her home life is sweetly bland but she has bright plans for her life, plans that include Oxford University. A charming but older man drives into her life. We'll see how she handles this new arrival.

Alfred Molina was absolutely delightful as her loving dad who is serious about her education. That performance just popped onscreen, as did Carey Mulligan's.

LOVE IS STRANGE (2014).

Alfred Molina and John Lithgow starred in one of my picks for the Top 10 Films of 2014. First of all, the fact that this film received an R-rating is absurd and shows how outdated and conservative the ratings board is. A gay senior citizen says a 4-letter word in a bar. LOVE IS STRANGE, a touching drama, deserved nothing more severe than a PG-13 rating. Molina is wonderful as George, the music teacher. George and Ben, a New York City couple, have been together for decades. Laws have changed and now they can be married. It's a most happy family occasion.

However, the Great Recession hits and affects them. There's job loss and they lose their home. They are forced to separate for individual lodging with friends or relatives. Social attitudes, family attitudes, the economy and age affect their long commitment to each other and test their love. Their love always passes the test.

This is definitely another performance that should have brought Alfred Molina an Oscar nomination. He's remarkable. If you know classic films, LOVE IS STRANGE has poignant echoes of the 1937 tearjerker, MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW directed by Leo McCarey. You fully believe that Alfred Molina and John Lithgow are a very dear, old married couple in a changing New York City.

There you have it. Watch just those four film performances and, I bet, you'll agree with me that Alfred Molina is long overdue an Oscar nomination.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Some years ago, a good buddy of mine from my Milwaukee years was coming to New York City for a short holiday. He contacted me ahead of time and invited me to be his guest at the Saturday matinee of a Broadway show. After the show, we wanted a quick cocktail and dropped into a nearby deluxe hotel. I suggested the hotel because I'd been to its bar/restaurant. We were laughing, chatting, sipping cocktails and having a bite to eat when I noticed a long and lovely pair of lady legs stretched out from under a nearby table. The legs seemed to stretch from out theater district location in New York City all the way to Chicago. I followed the legs up to the face of the owner. Sitting alone, with a Playbill to a Broadway show, and having a beverage was....Julie Newmar. Yes, Catwoman herself. That feline and fabulous dancer/actress seen in a couple of MGM's crown jewel musicals.

Greg, my buddy, knew something was up because my eyes got the size of teacup saucers. Our waitress had come to the our table with our food order.

"You see that lady seated alone at that table?"

"Yes," the waitress replied. "She's very nice. She just ordered some appetizers too."

"Great. We know her. Please put her order, drink included, on my tab. Seriously." I was treating Greg. I was going to treat Julie Newmar too. The waitress smiled broadly and took care of it. I think she loved delivering the message.

"Greg," I leaned in and said in low voice, "it's Julie Newmar. Catwoman. Look over. Don't stare. Be subtle."

He gave a nonchalant glance over my shoulder and then did an Ethel Mertz-like gasp. "Oh my god! It is her!" he said a hushed voice. Catwoman from the 1960s BATMAN series on ABC starring Adam West.

The order was delivered. We watched the waitress point over to us. We waved and smiled at Julie Newmar. She waved and smiled back at us. Mouthed a sincere "thank you" and then she ate.

After she finished eating....SHE CAME OVER TO OUR TABLE TO THANK US AGAIN!

We, of course, were giddy and invited her to sit down with us. She did. We could tell that she was honestly touched. "How did you know it was me?"

Practically in unison, Greg and I gushed, "We loved you as Catwoman on BATMAN!"

She let out a sweet, throaty laugh. I said, "And you did some great dancing at MGM. I loved you in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS and THE BAND WAGON in 'The Girl Hunt' number. Did Sydney Guilaroff do your hair in those two movies?"

She went slack-jawed and answered, "Yes! How did you know that Guilaroff did my hair?"

I replied, "I'm gay, middle-aged and I've got no life."

Julie Newmar laughed again. She was a most charming guest at our table for a few wonderful minutes. We chatted about her movies and her TV sitcom work.

I can't recall what Broadway show Greg and I had seen. But I remember having laughs with him and we both remember the wonderful, unexpected company of Julie Newmar at our table late that Saturday afternoon.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

When I was a kid in South Central LA, one of the most eagerly-awaited days of the year was the annual Sunday when CBS had a special prime time broadcast of THE WIZARD OF OZ. Keep in mind that this was years before cable TV, DVDs and such. The evening of the annual network airing of THE WIZARD OF OZ was like Christmas to me. It was a magical night of family viewing.

Our local station KTTV/Channel 11 had access to a lot of films in the MGM library. KTTV aired a lot of the Judy Garland MGM musicals, except for THE WIZARD OF OZ. So, when I was a kid, I'd come home from school or come in from playing outside on the weekends and I'd see Judy Garland when she was a kid who made movies with Mickey Rooney.

Another local station was KHJ/Channel 9. The call letters are now KCAL. On Friday nights, KHJ aired movies that were mostly indie films for mature viewers. Movies like DAVID AND LISA, GONE ARE THE DAYS with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, 1957's THE BACHELOR PARTY and ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO. One feature had an all-star cast. It was an Oscar winner and a longer film. The first half aired one night. The second half aired the following Friday. In the station's promos, I heard that Judy Garland was in the movie. Of course, I wanted to stay up on Friday night to see it.

Mom and Dad told me that this was the older Judy Garland. Not like in her early MGM musicals with Mickey Rooney. This was Judy Garland when she was a grown-up. She wouldn't be singing and dancing. This was a serious film. A drama. But they suggested that I see it and they would be watching it too. They told me that some of what I would see would shock and scare me. The scariest thing would be that it really happened.

My parents in South Central L.A. used the film JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG and my love for Judy Garland to teach me a history lesson. They wanted me to be aware of a crime that should never, ever happen again. Never again. This was before I started middle school. In the 1961 drama, Nazi offers are held accountable for the Holocaust, for the mass exterminations of Jews during the WW2 years. In the film, we see actual news reel footage shot inside the concentration camps when the Allies arrived.

Judy Garland played Irene Hoffman, woman who had been accused of being a traitor to Germany because she had befriended an old Jewish man. She was accused of that alleged crime when she was 16 -- about the same age Garland was in real life when we saw her as Dorothy in THE WIZARD OF OZ. Irene is now a married woman called upon to testify in the Nuremberg trials and recount that horrible time. I attended a parochial high school in Watts. There, teachers showed us a documentary that taught me more about the Holocaust and World War 2.

I am still grateful to my parents for using a classic film with a classic film star as a tool to make me aware of a very important history lesson.

Monday, August 14, 2017

Blow out the candles and make a wish, Halle Berry. Make a wish for good Hollywood scripts to come your way. Today, the gorgeous Hollywood history maker turns 51. I feel that one of her biggest breakthroughs after years on on-camera work came when she had the opportunity to play the late, great Dorothy Dandridge in a biopic for HBO. Dorothy Dandridge broke through Hollywood's color barrier and became the first Black woman nominated for the Best Actress Oscar. Her well-deserved nomination came for 1954's musical drama, CARMEN JONES co-starring Harry Belafonte. The favorite to win was Judy Garland for her sensational screen comeback in the 1954 remake of A STAR IS BORN. Judy and Dorothy lost to Grace Kelly for THE COUNTRY GIRL. Despite her sizzling, charismatic, Oscar-nominated performance in 20th Century Fox's CARMEN JONES, the lovely and talented Dorothy Dandridge did not get another top Hollywood lead role opportunity until 1959's PORGY AND BESS. Her lack of opportunities were because of her race. PORGY AND BESS was her last film. Halle Berry won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for 1999's INTRODUCING DOROTHY DANDRIDGE. For her dramatic performance in 2001's MONSTER'S BALL, Halle Berry won the Oscar for Best Actress.

That was Halle Berry's first and, so far, only Oscar nomination. She was the first and, so far, only Black woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress.

Viola Davis is now the most Oscar-nominated African American actress in Hollywood history. She has three nominations to her credit. This year, she won Best Supporting Actress for FENCES.

Whoopi Goldberg and Octavia Spencer are now tied with two Oscar nominations to their credit. Whoopi won Best Supporting Actress for GHOST and Octavia Spencer won Best Supporting Actress for THE HELP.

No African American actress in Hollywood history has more than three Oscar nominations. No African American woman other than Halle Berry has taken home the prize for Best Actress.

As I've written before, talented white actresses are lucky because they've had more opportunities from Hollywood. 26-year old Jennifer Lawrence has one Best Actress Oscar and four Oscar nominations to her credit. Amy Adams has five Oscar nominations. Julia Roberts has four nominations and one Best Actress Oscar win -- like Jennifer Lawrence. Yep. Julia Roberts and Jennifer Lawrence had more opportunities and Oscar-nomination luck than Black actresses who got one Oscar nomination and then turned to TV for work because Hollywood offered no script opportunities -- Cicely Tyson, Angela Bassett, Alfre Woodard, Diahann Carroll and Taraji P. Henson are some of those actresses.

Halle Berry worked with a woman director to make what I feel is her best film after her historic Oscar win. She plays a middle-class suburban widow with children. David Duchovny played the charitable, loving husband who meets an untimely death early in the film. Benicio Del Toro plays the husband's best friend, a recovering junkie who tries to help the widow. She's pretty much paralyzed with grief. She had her prejudices towards the friend. Susanne Bier directed 2007's THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE.

If you're a Benecio Del Toro fan -- like I am -- this is a must-see movie. He's excellent in it. Ironically, the weekend THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE opened, the West Coast was devastated by a huge, destructive fire that topped the national headlines. In that long portion of Southern California, folks were more concerned with protecting their homes than heading to the cineplex to see a movie. THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE sort of got lost in the fire itself.

Susanne Bier's film is worth a look. Halle Berry does a fine job as the troubled suburban mother. And she was the perfect choice to play Dorothy Dandridge. She deserved those awards. It's a crime that the extremely talented Dorothy Dandridge had such a limited film career because of Hollywood's lame racial attitudes.

Let's wish Halle Berry a very Happy Birthday -- and let's wish her good Hollywood scripts and steady employment. She deserves both.

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Are you familiar with the weekday NPR interview show, FRESH AIR, hosted by Terry Gross? It seems you can always get booked as a guest on her show if your product includes one or more of the following three items: 1) Non-mainstream sex 2) Some history of Nazi Germany and 3) Anything or anyone connected to Judd Apatow. If you had a relative who was a WWII vet and fought Nazis, got married and had a son who became a bachelor high school principal who loved to dress up in drag when going out on gay dates out of town and if Judd Apatow based a movie character on that vet's drag queen son, you'd be Terry Gross' special guest for one whole entire hour.

In my Twitter feed, I noticed a post from UPROXX called "Judd Apatow explains why great comedies like AIRPLANE! aren't honorable to critics." I am one of those people who just about split his sides laughing at AIRPLANE!

Apatow produced THE BIG SICK, one of my favorite films of this year. I wrote a recent blog post about that touching, smart romantic comedy. Honestly, I laughed, I cried, I loved it. And, during it, I realized how much I missed good romantic comedies -- good comedies in general. Apatow is one talented man. However, a few of his productions have element sof maybe why critics are so ho-hum about comedies. They drag on like the drunken buddy who keeps repeating the same story. FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, KNOCKED UP and THE FIVE YEAR ENGAGEMENT made me laugh yet I did feel each had a good 15 minutes that could've been cut out to make the comedy tighter. Those 15 minutes just repeated business about the lead male character we already new. I was a background actor for THE FIVE YEAR ENGAGEMENT. It shot in San Francisco. I had a great time. I watched one scene be improvised on the spot to highlight a star's comedy buddy. The scene is the movie but it's not at all necessary. THE BIG SICK is much better.

I thought of other comedies that were just as good, if not better than AIRPLANE! as I read Apatow's comments: ANNIE HALL, TOOTSIE, the under-appreciated QUICK CHANGE with Bill Murray and Geena Davis.

Apatow gives his reason why studios aren't green-lighting more character-driven comedies that appeal to adult women and men and not just frat boys. The article reminded me of those many lists of Top 5 or Top 10 on Facebook and Twitter. If you asked "What 10 classic films would you take with you to watch on a 2-week vacation?," a lot of critics (mostly men) and acquaintances of critics would list 10 deep dish movies. Classics like Ingmar Bergman's CRIES AND WHISPERS and THE SEVENTH SEAL, Buñuel's THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, Bresson's DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST or Schlöndorff's THE TIN DRUM. I've seen those kinds of lists and read the responses. Rarely, if ever, does anyone include mainstream, highly entertaining, well-regarded comedies. I was guilty of that once. I was going to include my list of Top 10 Favorite Films I'd Take to Watch on Vacation...and I was going to list Abel Gance's 1927 silent film NAPOLEON. It is a historical masterpiece. Every time I saw it, I was lucky enough to see it on a big screen during a special engagement. However, I have seen that 1927 French masterpiece four times in my entire life.

I've seen NAPOLEON DYNAMITE four times in one month alone. I have rented NAPOLEON DYNAMITE on DVD so many times that I have memorized large chucks of dialogue from that 2004 indie comedy. How many times have I seen NAPOLEON DYNAMITE? I don't know exactly but the number is surely in the double digits.

That's the honest truth. It would've been dishonest of me to list 1927's NAPOLEON. I would've put it a list to impress the critics and the critics' high falutin friends. Critics should come out of the closet about comedies. I belly laugh at W.C. Fields in IT'S A GIFT and Jerry Lewis as THE BELLBOY and THE LADIES MAN. TOOTSIE still breaks me up. And if Jessica Lange got an Oscar for Tootsie, Marilyn Monroe should've definitely received an Oscar nomination for SOME LIKE IT HOT or her musical comedy brilliance in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES.

So, if you were spending next week on vacation in a nice tropic spot and took 5 comedies with you, what would they be?

P.S. If you saw NAPOLEON DYNAMITE and you left the theater or clicked off the DVD as soon as the closing credits started, then you haven't seen how it really ends. There's one more fabulous scene.

Saturday, August 12, 2017

I shared this about my South Central L.A. boyhood with a Broadway actress in her dressing room one night. A friend, who represented her, had taken me to see a 1990s revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein's THE KING AND I. I grew up loving the movie version, watching it on TV every chance I got, and I loved listening to the movie soundtrack album. Our house was like just about every other house on our block. Our record collection had great jazz, Motown albums and at least one soundtrack to a classic Rodgers & Hammerstein musical. Why? Well, come on. Their music was gorgeous. In addition to that, they used their music and the stories to shout down bigotry and intolerance. Our Black people were familiar with bigotry and intolerance. After I told the Broadway star how moved I was by her show, she smiled and replied that she wasn't sure if she wanted to do revival at first because the libretto seemed dated. I emphatically told her how important works of art like THE KING AND I are.

America was in the midst of culture wars at that time. I told her, "Anna is not a privileged white woman giving orders with a superior attitude. She embraces cultural diversity and she has respect for different races. 'Getting To Know You' is very important. 'Getting to know you, Getting to know all about you. Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me.'" People of color are not invisible, second class citizens to her. They become a part of her special world. Her young son learns from his widowed mother's embrace of another culture and her humility.

When NBC network TV host Donald Trump consistently disrespected President Barack Obama verbally by claiming Mr. Obama, our first Black president, was not a real American and demanded to see his birth certificate, I was offended. When he got on Twitter and wrote disrespectful things about President Obama, I was offended. I was also offended that Donald Trump had never apologized to The Central Park Five, Black and Latino teens sent to prison for years and -- as we learned -- wrongfully accused of assault and rape. He'd called for their execution. And I was offended by the insensitive things the NBC entertainment TV host said about Mexicans.

To me, those actions of his were all red flags.

The TV host was elected to the White House, supported by citizens who held up signs reading "Time To Take Our Country Back."

This weekend, white nationalists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia. One anti-nationalist reportedly was killed. There's video of some marching and shouting "Heil, Trump!" David Duke, a nationally known former KKK leader, attended the Charlottesville march and, on camera, said "We are determined to take our country back. We're going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump..."

We saw Nazi flags in America. Just like the one Baron von Trapp tears down and rips up in Rodgers & Hammerstein's THE SOUND OF MUSIC.

When I saw news photos of the white nationalists carrying lit torches in the Friday night Charlottesville rally, one thing that hit me was how young the faces were. Young men who could be new in college. How did ones so young come to that? I agree with the wisdom of Rodgers & Hammerstein. From the 1958 film version of their Broadway hit, SOUTH PACIFIC, a World War 2 love story that deals with racial prejudice, here's their song "Carefully Taught."

Friday, August 11, 2017

Films have been my passion ever since I was in grade school. Family members and childhood friends will attest to that. When I was in high school, I would take my little transistor radio with me on the day the Oscar nominations were announced. Back then, the nominations were announced early in the afternoon Pacific Time, not in the pre-dawn hours as they are now. I have some notes on the Oscar winner for Best Picture and Best Actor of 1967. The movie was IN THE HEAT OF NIGHT, a murder mystery and race drama starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger (Oscar winner). It was directed by Norman Jewison. I write my notes as someone who remembers that time. I was a high school student in Watts, the South Central L.A. community still healing from days of the Watts Riots that started on August 11, 1965. Police agitation and racial inequality were elements in that rebellion. My notes are in response to an article I just read on Twitter from a British site I like and read regularly -- GUARDIAN FILM. On August 10th, it posted an article that included some comments about Jewison's IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.

One of the other five films nominated for Best Picture was BONNIE AND CLYDE. The GUARDIAN FILM article is called "Bored of blockbusters? Why Hollywood needs another Bonnie and Clyde moment." The article, written by Danny Leigh, can probably also be found if you log onto theguardian.com/film.

BONNIE AND CLYDE was released in August 1967. Because this is a special anniversary year of its release, that's why its stars, Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, appeared on the Oscars earlier this year to present the award for Best Picture of 2016. The winner was MOONLIGHT, not LA LA LAND. And the mistake was not theirs. The responsible party was so busy live-tweeting his selfies with celebrities backstage that he was not paying attention to his job. He handed the stars the wrong envelope. To me, this was proof that live-tweeting can be in the same lane as texting while driving. You're not paying full attention to what's in progress in front of you.

Columnist Danny Leigh wrote that BONNIE AND CLYDE, based on the true story of two 1930s gun-toting bank robbers, was a "transformative crime movie." No argument from me on that point. The movie challenged the dying production code with its shoot-out violence. Beatty, producer and star, was making a statement. He wanted the gunfire volume to be louder and jarring. Like what George Stevens did in SHANE. Where conservative Hollywood monitors hated about the screen violence from the two young characters financially kicked to the curb by The Great Depression at a time when banks were foreclosing on homes, young working class American men were being drafted into the Vietnam War. A young generation saw the war and heard similar gunfire every day on the network evening news. The ratings board was upset with the make-believe violence onscreen, meanwhile the 1960s was a most turbulent and tragically violent decade in real life. President John F. Kennedy had been shot and killed while in office. The Vietnam War was extremely unpopular and had divided a nation. I was a high school kid who was afraid that war would drag on and I'd be drafted. Uncle Sam seemed to favor scooping up black and brown males from low-income communities for service.

Jack L. Warner was still the head of Warner Brothers and the only one of the big Hollywood movie studio bosses who still had his position. He didn't have any faith and BONNIE AND CLYDE and wanted to release it to drive-in movie theaters, according to Beatty. That struck me as ironic because, in its heyday, Warner Brothers was famous for gangster movies and crime stories starring James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson as machine gun-toting hoodlums.

BONNIE AND CLYDE opened. What stuffy male critics didn't get, young moviegoers did. The movie scored an out-of-the park home run with three bases loaded. It was a big box office hit, the soundtrack was a hit on the Billboard charts with selections getting some radio airplay, and the costumes by Theadora Van Runkle -- especially those designed for Faye Dunaway -- triggered a fashion trend that I recall seeing in Los Angeles department stores. Then, the controversial movie that Jack L. Warner had little love for, got 10 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress (Estelle Parson, winner), two for Best Supporting Actor and Best Director.

In his article, Danny Leigh reports that a noted white male film journalist categorized the success of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT as "...somewhere between irrelevance and obstacle." He called it a "safe" movie.

We black moviegoers didn't see IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT as "safe." We saw it as rebellious, especially in one famous scene. Keep in mind that Sidney Poitier, a friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, was present at the 1963 March on Washington. He was up there on the platform during Dr. King's now-famous "I Have a Dream" speech. In 1964, Poitier made history when he won the Best Actor Oscar for 1963's LILIES OF THE FIELD. Nonetheless, he was reluctant to do IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT because it would film down South. He and Harry Belafonte had been racially harassed down South during their Civil Rights activism. Poitier accepted the role but faced racial discrimination from hotels. Deluxe hotels would not book black guests. Jewison had to take care securing lodging for Mr. Poitier. President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1964 which basically allowed black Americans the freedom to vote. But interracial marriage was still illegal in several American states. That would change in 1967 thanks to a Supreme Court ruling.

When Detective Tibbs gets slapped by that racist white man and he slaps him back -- that moment took us black folks to church! That was a significant movie moment full of symbolic social relevance for us African Americans.

In the scene after that one, the town mayor -- also a racist -- casually remarks to the police chief Steiger played that the previous police chief would've shot the black detective dead for that slap and claimed self-defense. Think of national news stories within the last few years here in U.S. in which an unarmed black man was shot and killed by a non-black cop who claimed "I feared for my life."

The live telecast in which IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT won the Oscar for Best Picture aired later than scheduled. The Academy Awards, for the first and only time in Oscar history, had been postponed. The Oscars had been postponed out of national respect for the recent funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King. The Civil Rights leader had been shot and killed on April 4th, 1968. The Oscar show, originally scheduled for April 8th, was held April 10th instead.

I'd disagree with Peter Biskind if he feels that IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is "irrelevant." The nominees for Best Picture of 1967 were:
BONNIE AND CLYDE
THE GRADUATE
GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
DOCTOR DOOLITTLE

Besides being passionate about film art, I'm also a veteran entertainment news reporter and film reviewer who worked on network TV and contributed to ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY Magazine.

About Me

The New York Times hailed Bobby Rivers as "a master interviewer with a gift for banter" on his VH1 celebrity talk show in the late 1980s. Bobby Rivers has been a prime time talk show host, an ABC News movie critic and entertainment news contributor, a syndicated game show host and a Food Network host. Whoopi Goldberg picked him to be on her Premiere Radio weekday morning show in 2006. He's acted in national TV commercials and played a recurring comedy character for The Onion. A longtime SAG-AFTRA union member, he's proud to have been the first African-American to get a talk show on VH1 and also to be one of the few black performers who's been a weekly movie critic and film historian on network TV. On VH1, some of his guests were Kirk Douglas, Norman Mailer, Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Ben Kingsley, Paul McCartney, Carlos Santana, Omar Sharif, Patrick Swayze, Sally Field, cartoon voiceover legend Mel Blanc and Whoopi Goldberg. Bobby Rivers grew up in South Central L.A., graduated from a high school in Watts and got a B.A. from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.